The Non-Existent Perspective
by Whiskas2
Summary: Sometimes you can bounce back from even the worst of circumstances. She was erased, yet still hanged on, bleeding the memories that made her up and trying to keep her sense of self in one piece. Sometimes it isn't love that allows people to do defy fate but hate. She came back but at the cost of her own name. And she will get it back. Along with a side of the dish best served cold.
1. Chapter 1

There was truly something unique about non-existence, she found. It was a contradictory state of (non-)being that made absolutely no sense if you gave it enough thought. She had no body and as such, no brain to use to think, yet she could do so anyway. She had no eyes or ears but she could still see what was happening in the world. The world she couldn't interact with at all. But somehow she could still _see_ and _hear_ and _think_ , and she just wanted it to _stop._

Being a bundle of memories attached to a vague idea of a person she once was, was _difficult_ to handle. It gave her just enough mind to _think_ but why would she do that if not _holding on_ to what she was would cause parts of her to slip away and be gone just like that?

She had a name, once. She couldn't remember it though. It was the price for learning what would happen if she didn't _focus_ on maintaining her rather fragile sense of self. She could still recall her terror when the memory strand containing what was her name fell down into the bottomless Sanzu River.

It really stung that even the one who _did this to her_ forgot it as soon as she was finished.

She couldn't blame whatever-her-name-was of course, reality itself was changing to accommodate for her not being there as she was being erased after all. All traces of her were gone. The timeline changed, _unraveled_ to the point of her conception. The ground she tore up in her last fight? Back in it's place as if nothing happened to it. Her house? Gone. The ground it was built on was turned into a playground for children. The one who _done_ this? Still had both her shikigami and her right eye. Her best friend and partner in crime? Gone, sealed away in the place she would have freed her from. Those two kids they mentored? Well, at they were still around, thankfully. Doing even better than if she stuck around actually. Small blessings, she supposed. Gensokyo was a lot more peaceful with the Spell Card System in place. The blond one that Mima doted on even still had her left arm! And seeing _Her_ teasing Reimu and drinking tea with her? Well, if sheer desire to _kill and maim_ could have brought her back she'd be the one drinking it with Reimu. Too bad she forgot _H_ _er_ name too.

It all boiled down to her attitude really. Her bitterness and the arrogance that rose from it made her step on toes of a lot of powerful people. Most importantly _Hers._

She shook her non-existent head. She had no body but her field of vision followed the would be movements. That train of thought cost her a strand of memory containing her annoying neighbor's name. It fell to the ground and no one would ever know it was there. A small price to pay but that memory could have been spent protecting a piece of her theoretical magical knowledge she could use to get back into existing.

Not that she could think about a way to do that without sacrificing much, much more.

* * *

Time flowed so fast when she didn't limit it with thoughts. A mere moment before they were all drinking tea after the Spring Snow Incident. Now Reimu was fighting Sanae with the blond kid hanging in the back and observing. She floated herself over to where the witch was and looked on. She could see a few hundred strands of herself on her being, unnoticeable to anyone but her. Back when she followed them like a lost puppy, futilely hoping they would notice her. She could appreciate the beauty of Danmaku. Sanae's bullets seemingly trapping Reimu with no escape, only for her to find a way out just in the nick of time. The way the brown haired shrine maiden was casually shooting projectiles of her own, nailing the still girl with needles and talismans alike and how they dissipated upon impact. How they kept up their casual banter. How they weren't at each other's throats, covered in their own and each other's blood like they would be if she was still there.

That fight stretched on for ages. The power of the Hakurei bloodline and Reimu's natural skill found a worthwhile opponent in the ability to create miracles, call on gods and ability to command and become the wind itself. In the end the winner was obvious and she didn't regret forgetting Reimu's expression when she was staring at Kochiya's broken body. The Moriya gods never forgotten the transgression, even when the girl eventually recovered with the help of one of her miracles. Merely another nail in her coffin.

She wasn't sure she could do Danmaku herself. It was an art in it of itself. You attacks were expected to be artistic and beautiful and you weren't supposed to actually kill your opponent when you've beaten them. Power still mattered of course, but brute force didn't win duels alone. She had loads of power, too much even for a mere human magician but she was brutal in her fighting style. Limit their mobility first by crippling their limbs, taunting them along the way to destabilize them emotionally before going in for the killing blow or two. Often much more with youkai, thanks to that damned durability of theirs prolonging their lives and suffering. She wondered how Mima would have done in this system. The spirit was hideously powerful and had the temperament to match it but grace wasn't one of her defining traits. Then again in the timeline where she didn't exist...? Who knows. Not like she can come into Makai now. It was an entirely different realm and she couldn't interact with the physical world and _**break**_ the way into it open to it.

She absently noticed the duel had already ended and the blonde flying off after Reimu. She didn't follow, instead choosing to examine the loser of the duel. She was panting and holding her head, complaining about a headache. It was strange seeing her like this, not covered in bleeding cuts, with needles stuck in every inch of her body, face unrecognizable and all limbs twisted in unnatural ways.

The visage of the broken version of Sanae she was seeing faded out and she flinched, judging by how her vision shifted. The strand of the memory disconnected itself from her and attached itself to the girl. Another memory gone. Another payment rendered.

She flied away without looking back. As far as she could.

And time flew by once again.

* * *

There was not a living soul in sight this time.

In retrospect, her situation was hopeless and she knew it from the beginning. She just didn't want to acknowledge it. There wasn't that much left of her now. What she would have considered most important has remained up to this point, that much she was grateful for. Images of Mima smiling as she ruffled her pupil's dirtied hair. The sound of Reimu's laughter after she told her a bad joke. Them sitting in Mima's residence around the fireplace during a cold winter night as a snowstorm raged outside and chatting it away.

She would have cried, if she could.

Sitting there in a small opening in this middle of a sunflower field she felt defeated, utterly crushed. In the end was holding on truly worth it? She only prolonged her own suffering. No one would admire her resolve when they didn't even know someone like her once _was_. There was no heaven or hell, no _ending, final destination_ for her. All this effort… it was for nothing. She was falling apart, one strand of memory dragged out of her after the other. Over and over and over and _over_.

It wouldn't be long now.

She had, at most, a few hours left. But it wouldn't be long before she forgot even them.

The desperation was overwhelming.

Still, she wouldn't go out without a fight. Youkai or threat of ceasing to exist completely, it didn't matter. She never gave up. That wasn't her. And most importantly...

Quitting was for _losers._

So she stopped _f_ _ocusing_ and started _act_ _ing_.

If she had a mouth she'd be screaming something what one of those shounen manga heroes from the outside world would be.

She tried to call on what power she had left in herself to do _something, anything_. Leaving a dent in the dirt beneath her, killing an ant, wilting a sunflower, it didn't matter. A mark on the world that abandoned her, something that would last, if only for a fraction of a second and in the grand scheme of things, wouldn't even be a footnote. The world _SHE_ rejected her from. The only person she would ever truly _hate_. For taking everything away from her and daring to forget. For erasing her from existence. She would _pay_ for that. _She_ wouldn't let _her_ succeed. With her dying breath she'll do everything in her power to screw her over.

Rage boiled her non-existent blood. Defiance in the face of that _Hag's_ punishment bolstered her confidence. Anger fueled her resolve.

A scream of primal, incomprehensible _hatred_. It was muted, barely a whisper in the real world but she heard it. The sound of her own voice. She had no memory of it now, yet she managed to recognize it as her own. And to no small amount of surprise a single strand of those shed memories, came from gods know where and flied into her.

Yukari Yakumo.

Two words etched themselves into her thoughts. She didn't know what they stood for, but it wasn't coincidence. It couldn't be.

 _Y_ _ukari Yakumo._

They echoed across what was left of her and she found herself growing even more furious.

 _ **Y**_ _ **ukari Yakumo**_ _ **.**_

There were more strands of memories rapidly closing in. The ones which she dropped in the sunflower fiel-No, the Garden of the Sun were dragging themselves on the ground towards her.

 _ **YUKARI. YAKUMO.**_

She remembered.

There was no other moment in history where someone _hated_ so intensely.

The wind was blowing so hard it was bending most of the thick sunflower stems, even breaking some of them. Yuuka would be mad, but she didn't care enough. Her idea of revenge would be a brutal beating, Danmaku or not and she would gladly take that. It would make her feel alive once again.

She could see her own hands. She clenched them and felt the fingers touch her _skin,_ _real and existing skin._ A smile was coming onto her face and she allowed it to form, marveling at the sensation of muscles working underneath her skin to place it on her countenance.

To say that the wind was blowing now would be an understatement. It was a full blown tornado with her right in the eye of the storm. Her white and red dress was flapping in the wind, and the red bows were barely holding on to her blond hair.

Her smile took an appearance of an outright demonic grin and she bellowed at the top of her lungs, barely hearing her own voice over the cyclone of power and wind raging her as she stood up on her shaky legs.

" _ **You failed Yakumo!**_ " She would have followed that up with her name and an even louder exclamation of being back in business, but try as she might she couldn't remember her name.

That did a wonder on her mood, bringing her down from her high horse. That damned hag might have not succeeded at erasing her very concept but she still managed to steal her name from her. She gritted her teeth and glared at the heavens. She slowly turned in the direction of Mayohiga and started walking there before she stiffened. What would she even do? Yukari has beaten her once already. She gave her a run for her money, yes, but in the end it was the hag who was the victor.

No, fighting her now was a dangerously stupid idea. Even the ice fairy would consider it suicidal. Besides she was sorely out of practice. Out of power too. Coming back from the brink cost her too much, and she just now realized how drained she was.

No, revenge would have to wait. For now she needed to gather her strength and lay down for a while. It wouldn't do to get caught before she fully recovered after all. And there was the matter of getting her name back. It was lost for now, but she would find it again.

"Best served cold, huh?" She muttered and turned back before she jogged off slowly.

She could wait. She already rejected her fate after all. What's a few more months or years in the face of sweet satisfaction?


	2. Chapter 2

She stood at the edge of the Forest of Magic, letting out slightly labored breaths as she supported herself against one of the thick trees there. No one has seen her running away from the Garden of the Sun or, at least no one that made their presence known to her. She sat down, leaning against the tree and closed her eyes. She could take a moment to rest now, being as far as she was from her place of… rebirth? Re-entry? Who the hell even knows what to call that event? That Lunarian Goddess might have some fancy-schmancy word for it.

And what exactly _did_ happen to her? Yukari sure did her damnedest to erase her and she definitely succeeded but not _fully_. She had a mind and remnants of her old power that were slowly decaying over the time she was observing but no connection to the world. Did the hag fail somehow? The manipulation of her boundaries should have gotten rid of her completely but yet here she was, utterly defeated and without her name but still alive. And Yakumo would not let her stay alive, at least not intentionally. Not after she, oh so brutally, killed her loyal servant.

Her still being alive was a fluke then, a simple accident on that hag's part. What caused it? Perhaps she'll find out some day. Probably during choking the answers out of her.

And what looked from her perspective as time itself being undone might have been something else. She didn't have much experience with time manipulation herself. Sakuya explained that she could only slow down and stop it, not accelerate or reverse it, so there goes her only trustworthy source of information on that topic.

Not that she could talk to her now, given how the denizens of the Mansion don't know her in this timeline. Sakuya was a great friend, one very willing to part with information and make small talk about nearly every topic if you only managed to get past her trademark iciness. Which would take months, even years, which she was quite frankly _not_ willing to spend on a possibly hopeless endeavor.

She let out a heavy sigh and lightly banged her head on the tree. She knew nothing of her situation, had no family or friends to back her up, her magic would take days to replenish at this rate and perhaps worst of all, there was a very real chance people will connect her with the tornado at the Garden of the Sun by just picking up the residue magic and looking around for her. She wasn't exactly subtle with the whole thing.

Hell this Reimu might not have the skill set she drilled into her own Reimu's head together with Mima but she still had her Hakurei instincts and those were quite enough to find her if given enough time. Oh, she could try to hide and wait it out but just odds of finding herself in the wrong place at the wrong time were pretty heavily stacked in Reimu's favor.

And where would she hide even? The Mansion was right on out. Sakuya makes a few laps around the entire place in a single day just to clean up the mess the fairy maids make. Remilia would just _accidentally_ make her get lost and find her way into her throne room if she so much as _feels_ her blood coursing in her veins. Hiding inside the basement was also out, an unbefriended Flandre was just too dangerous.

Underground? It wouldn't be long before the Satori caught the wind of her. Oni can't lie and aren't exactly subtle. The moment she gets into a fight down there, which _will_ happen with her attitude, they won't be able to shut up about a human being capable of fighting with them one on one.

Eintei? The moon princess was too fickle a woman to be trusted, the Goddess would definitely try something as soon as caught wind of anything and she'd strangle the earth rabbit for her pranks. The moon rabbit was perhaps the only person civil and reasonable enough to be around in that nuthouse.

Bhava-Agra? She'd find some peace and quiet there but that celestial kid who smashed Reimu's shrine would try to fight her all the time. Suika would catch the wind of her sooner or later and mention it to Reimu during one of her drunken ramblings. And given the fact she was drunk and rambling all the time meant she'd be outed within a few days.

Moriya Shrine? No way Kochiya wouldn't talk about her with Reimu and she doesn't even want to get started on tall, blue and angry's plots. Or the frog goddess's passive aggressive investigation on who she was.

The Taoists? She wouldn't stand Miko's and her followers holier-than-thou attitude for longer than a few hours.

Myournen Temple? Not just no but _hell no_. She likes _not_ having buddist mantras getting shoved down her throat.

The Human Village? She was new here from the perspective of everyone else and new magicians don't just come out crawling out of the woodwork.

There were no good options left. Running was impossible, hiding would just delay the inevitable and fighting it out would just make her a target for everyone like this timeline's amonajaku.

… Well there was just one, _questionable_ option left.

She idly noticed the sun was slowly starting to set as she stared at the horizon.

"The Outside World..." She whispered quietly.

Yes. Yes, that would do, for some time. The gap hag wouldn't let anyone out just to search for her. She'd have to search the Outside for her herself. If she could get the wind of her. But if she stays in crowded places where there's no privacy, no one on one time, and then slips away from the country quickly enough…

"Yeah, that could work. It's for only a few months at most. Can't be that hard." She stood up. There was a way after all. But as much as she wanted to rush her… tactical retreat, she still needed to do one more thing here. So she turned deeper into the Forest of Magic and ran.

* * *

"Come on, it has to be somewhere here!" She yelled in frustration. She was already gritting her teeth and was on the verge of trying to tear her hair out. The reason for her frustration?

"Marisa if you ever made a mess like this back at home you would have been grounded longer then you'd ever live!" The amount of trash inside the blonde magician's house was incomprehensible to any mortal mind. Books and papers were spread on the floor like some sort of carpet, if carpets cut give you paper cuts, potions were tipping dangerously over the edge of furniture they were placed on, she was buried to her knees in magical artifacts and trinkets in some places and the poisonous gasses from many alchemical experiments, failed or successful were already making it hard for her to _breathe._ _And this was just the living room._

At least Marisa was out of home, probably investigating the event and fighting everyone else who showed up there. Which was great because with this mess she'd need all the time she could get to find what she was looking for.

"Aha! There you are!" Her victorious shout rang out throughout the building as she lifted the whole, uncut loaf of bread triumphantly to her mouth triumphantly and took a big bite out of it. And then another and one more after that. And last one for good measure.

She patted her belly and hummed out a few approving notes, munching on her food. It wouldn't do to try and escape Gensokyo on an empty stomach. Even if the bread was bit stale.

"Marisa? Are you home?" A feminine, restrained voice called out from the front door.

She choked. That wasn't planned for. What should she do? Kill her?

"Marisa are you choking on your food _again_? I told you so many times to slow down so you don't nearly suffocate yourself when someone comes over." The woman's voice was chiding, yet held a small note of fondness in it. She could hear hear steps in the living room, fast approaching, whoever this was they've had time to learn how to navigate this mess. Someone who Marisa knows and lets inside then. Killing out of the question. She wouldn't have the time to hide the body anyway.

Knock out? Escape? Dammit, which one should she chos-

"I thought you would be all over that mini hurricane already, but it seems like even the great Marisa Kirisame gets hungry every now and then." The woman let out a small, polite giggle. "Come on now, hurry up, or you'll be complaining Reimu beat you to an incident again." The woman was just around the corner…

She bit her own lip and took a quick look around. The kitchen had a window but it was held closed with a padlock. Why would Marisa close the window with a padlock?!

She was cornered. No escape could be made without leaving a trace and she couldn't kill Marisa's friend, regardless of if she was her own Marisa or some other version of her.

"Marisa do you need a pat on the back? You're so-" The owner of the voice came around the corner "Hopeless?" Her exasperated statement's tone switched to confusion as she saw her.

The girl was blonde with short hair that had a band in it. She wore a light blue dress with white sleeves and had two pink ribbons on her, one around her neck and a second one around her waist. There was a small brown bag strapped over her right shoulder.

To the her credit it only took her a split second to take a look at her and adept a combat stance, with dolls bursting out of the bag over her shoulder, dress and from behind her. She allowed them to take formation without twitching a finger or blinking as she counted their numbers and variations quietly.

Two dozen shield maiden dolls were floating in front of the blonde taking a shape of a square. She was flanked with another two dozen dolls with lances on each side and a small squad of six each was positioned behind each of her shoulders wielding miniature muskets. Each of the dolls had a small string connecting it to the rings around the person who had to be a magician's fingers.

She held back a whistle. If this kid could manipulate each of the dolls at the same time then she'd give her some credit, not that many people had nearly the same amount of control as her.

Too bad control didn't equate power. In the end it doesn't necessarily matter what control and management over how much magic you're using when your opponent has more power than she knows what to do with.

"Who are you? Where's Marisa?" Her tone carried a certain sense of power in it, as if she magically enhanced it so her words would hold more weight, so they would make the listener want to talk. Sadly for the upstart, so many people in her Gensokyo could do it better without resorting to spells.

But she had to give her a point to her, she didn't let her frustration get a hold of her. Showing it was different matter entirely given how hard she was biting her lip.

In the end she only shrugged in response and threw the loaf of bread on the counter while considering her options. She sure as hell didn't remember her name or know for sure where Marisa was. She should just give the girl a small beating, nothing serious, enough to knock her out, cast a tiny memory charm to erase the last five minutes from her memory and be on her merry way.

"You..." The blonde puppeteer was apparently very dissatisfied with her answer, given how she lightly twitched her left pinky finger causing the musketeer dolls their tiny firearms in her direction.

She quickly swiped her right hand in front of herself while magically manipulating the air in front of her to momentarily harden, forming an invisible wall, before releasing it after the tiny bullets bounced off her wind shield. She didn't need the hand gesture but the blonde didn't have to know that.

There was a slight pause as both of them quietly considered the other.

This time the hand movement was bigger and much faster as the girl's fingers performed a complicated dance. The lancer dolls charged forward in small waves of six, the shield maidens slowly advanced after, while the musketeers started reloading their weapons.

Well now she _really_ wanted to whistle. She may not have had overwhelming power but this level of control? It was very impressive. And judging by the seeming lack of effort she could control _much, much_ more. She had to give credit where credit was due. But she had things to do and that meant playtime was _over._

So she tried to _**break**_ the puppet master's strings.

Keyword here being _tried_.

She frowned at the distinct lack of broken strings.

It wasn't even because her ability refused to work on the strings. At those times she could feel the power she put into it rising to fulfill it's task but denying to affect her target, causing a mildly unpleasant backlash as the power failed to be delivered anywhere and consequently spread out. Her ability to break things was pretty useful at times but came with, in some cases, crippling conditions. First of all, the target had to solid. Not necessarily solid as in physical matter, given she could break someone's belief or disbelief in something but it had to be able to be considered solid. Of course that's where the _second_ limiter came in. It wasn't _she_ who determined what was solid enough to be broken by her ability but rather the ability _itself_. It didn't seem to follow any logical train of thought of what she could and couldn't break, rather, it seemed to followed random chance. And, as if to add insult to injury, while it worked one hundred percent of time on physical objects, given the fact they were solid matter, it didn't break them apart fully just break them. Objects large enough only earned themselves a few big cracks and she was left to repeat the process.

So imagine her surprise when the strings, despite being solid objects, failed to fray, dissipate, get cut in half or tear.

Of course she didn't let that be more than a momentary distraction. She learned that her ability wasn't the most reliable, so she never depended on it much.

She was after all… herself, the most powerful human magician Gensokyo's ever seen.

She politely waited half a second, watching as the dolls closed half the distance to her chest, probably with the intent to skewer her like a shish kebab.

Then, in one practiced, lethal motion raised her left hand and lowered it, faking the need for a gesture again as she formed an air blade that cut the charging dolls strings. Then with her right she pretended to need to use it to form an another wind shield.

Some of the puppets flied past her, carried by their momentum but majority bounced of her barrier and fell on the kitchen's messy floor. She idly wondered how much time the girl would spend cleaning their dresses from the dust and leftovers crumbs that littered it.

"Aren't you just a bit too aggressive? I have it on good authority you people settle things with spell card duels here." She asked, letting just a tiny bit of her trademark arrogance shine through her tone as she gave her opponent a smug smirk.

The blonde gave a frustrated growl.

"I'm going to give you one more chance. Where is Marisa?" She drawled out through her gritted teeth.

She couldn't help but give an amused chuckle in response.

"My dear, you aren't exactly in any position to be asking things here." Really who did this _child_ think she _was_? Now she _really_ wanted to put her in her place. But she would hold back- this was one of Marisa's friends after all. It wouldn't do to hurt her. Permanently, at least.

The puppets shot at her again, this time aiming at her right arm. She smiled as she formed the next wind shield without the gesture. Then she crossed the distance in four large steps as the bullets bounced off and the girl's eyes widened the dolls lost formation and _she stumbled back…_

She caught the ribbon around her neck and pulled her to herself twisting her around and grabbing her in a choke hold before starting to strangle her. The girl let out a few squeaks of surprise, then horror as tried to free herself in vain. She flailed and thrashed wildly around in her grip before starting to slow down as her body refused to work without the necessary oxygen. Finally as she stopped moving, she stopped squishing her throat and quickly checked for her pulse. It was there- very weak, but it was.

"Really should have backed out kid." She snorted, before letting out a deep sigh. She did it again. If she didn't think this was Marisa's friend, she'd already have blood on her hands in this timeline. How long? An hour and a half? Must be some kind of record.

She lifted the puppeteer in a bridal carry and walked over to what she only could assume was a couch before gently laying her down. She put her hand over the girl's forehead and cast the memory charm.

"Now I've lost enough time here." She returned to the kitchen and picked up the loaf of bread. She carefully navigated through the mess on the floor and found herself standing outside by the front door. She took one last look at the inside of the house and closed the door. The sun was still above the horizon though that was due to change in the next hour or so. If she made haste she'd make it out of Gensokyo before nightfall. There was just one problem with that.

" _Break_." She muttered quietly, focusing on a tree nearby. She built up the magical energy required but nothing happened. No cracks in the bark, no backlash. Did she lose her ability when she came back?

"Hmph. This makes the breakout much more inconvenient."

She originally planned on breaking a small hole in the Hakurei barrier and leaving through the hole it'd make before patching it up on the other side before anyone notices anything but that seemed to be a bust now.

Not that that would hold her back. Being virtually undetectable for a long time let her find out some very _interesting_ things by just following people unaware of her presence around. Like all the sweet spots in the Hakurei barrier she could leave by. Granted most of them were watched by that hag or her cronies but some were free of any supervision. She'd just have to find the nearest one. Piece of cake.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **Well I'm happy that this story is nicely received. One review, three favorites, five follows, not so bad, I say! It really makes me happy to see that people like my bad writing. I can only hope it'll get better as I write more. For now though, thanks for reading!**

 **-Whiskas**


	3. Chapter 3

Most people would surely express surprise when they found out that the Hakurei Shrine houses one of, if not the biggest and intentional weak points in the Hakurei Barrier. The point in which you'd end climbing the stairs leading to it from the direction of the human village and stand on top of them, underneath the Torii gate, was _precisely_ the point in which the Great Hakurei Barrier was _possibly_ at it's weakest. Of course, she wasn't one of the people who'd be surprised at the location of it. To someone like her, sensing such a thing would be child's play, however she'd admit not even she knows _why_ the barrier was weak here. She couldn't imagine the Hakurei maiden who created the barrier wouldn't fix such a glaring mistake the moment she noticed it, nor that the _hag_ wouldn't do anything about it.

So she simply accepted it as intentional design even if she couldn't fathom any possible reason for such a thing.

For now though it was going to be a very helpful design flaw, so she wasn't about to complain.

The sun has already dipped below the horizon and she was left to examine her tactical repositioning spot in near complete darkness. Reimu wasn't at the shrine and she wouldn't dare light the lamps in or outside.

The lack of light wasn't that much a bother, really. Since this was more a matter of magical rather than physical, visual representation wasn't required. Not like normal human eyes could see unformed, ambient magic. And she could always conjure up a small magical light or cast a night vision spell. Not that she needed light for this.

But the small reassurance of still being, at least mostly human, helped.

She continued walking blindly around the metaphorical crack in the barrier. It was hard to describe it, though to her magical sense, it was so obvious and clear. Infuriating.

She slowly came to a stop and started to raise her hand before hesitating. How should she go about this? She would have used her ability for this, as it was easier for her to use and fix if needed but she's either lost it forever or it's off limits for now. _Sure,_ she _could_ use what magic she's got left to force the way open, but she wasn't so sure she could fix the results of _that_. And she sure as hell didn't want to be left dry. She spent as little as she could on the blonde puppeteer and it was still too much for her to feel comfortable with.

And leaving a part of the Hakurei Barrier with an unpatched hole was just begging for trouble to invite itself _in_ _to_ or _out_ _of_ Gensokyo. And Yukari would be definitely more persistent in her chase after her should that happen.

She let out a deep sigh. This was quite the predicament she found herself in. Should she leave and hope the consequences of her actions don't catch up to her? Or try to find an another way? Maybe… there was something more to this anomaly? The placement of it was entirely too specific. Personally, she's never given it much thought, as she was too busy with other matters, like teaching the kids, protecting the village and drawing the ire of more and more progressively powerful people.

She closed her eyes and put a minuscule amount of magic into them, casting a night vision spell. The issue was magical but _maybe_ there was a clue in the physical surroundings.

When she opened her eyes again it was bright as day. She let out a hiss and covered her eyes. Right, how could she forget that sudden light straight into retinas will temporarily blind a person? Maybe because it wasn't really relevant when she didn't exist. Being a weird kind of spirit-memory-thing apparently let you see under all conditions except for when physical objects obstructed your line of sight.

…It probably wasn't a very good indication of her mental health that she could be so flippant about it at this point. Well, it's not like Gensokyo _isn't_ a place that festers all kinds of mental problems and disorders in all of it's denizens. Everyone was crazy in their own way. After all they lived in a land where common sense only holds you back.

She shook her head.

The gate itself didn't seem to be anything special. It was, in fact, the most standard kind of Torii gate there was. Which only made it more suspicious. The Hakurei Shrine was, perhaps, the most important place in Gensokyo. While it's occupants had history of facing financial struggles, at it's beginning the Hakurei clan was _wealthy_. No one quite knows what happened with their fortune and no one still alive really cares, because at this point it's more of a myth than something that once had support in historical facts. The Torii was there since the shrine was built and the shrine was built back when they still had the money. So that begged the question.

Why go for something so common and worse when you could afford something much better? Was the shrine maiden who had it built humble enough not to flaunt her clan's wealth? Was it simply a whim of some stingy Hakurei matriarch? The second would explain the fallout with the Hakurei God the descendants of the clan would eventually experience which lead to their budget catastrophe in the first place. It was never a good idea to anger one's patron, _especially_ if they were the God responsible for your success.

She absentmindedly began tracing the left wooden pillar with her hand.

Perhaps the God's patience was already depleted at the time of it's construction and it was built as to not remind them of their failure? Or maybe, so in the future no one would be interested in the lucrative gate, instead met with a typical one? A poor clan's humble Torii wouldn't attract much attention. It was therefore, a perfect place for hiding something in plain sight. Potential daredevil robbers wouldn't give it second thought alongside the rest of Gensokyo's populace, human or not.

Her fingers slid over something carved into the wood.

She turned her head and lifted her fingers. There was the offender, a small kanji for " _door_ " carved into the wood. She stared at it for a few seconds. This was definitely some kind of clue but it couldn't have been the only one left here. Alone it was too vague. She started dragging her hands all over the kanji's surroundings, turning her head and looking for any other kanji carved into the gate. It took a few seconds but she noticed kanji for " _orb_ " and " _key_ " carved into the wooden beam above her and the one on the right pillar for " _Haku_ -

Reimu just entered the arena covered by her magical sense. And she was closing in on her, _fast_.

Her breath hitched. Out of all people she didn't want to fight in a life or death situation or fight at all, Reimu was the number one on the list. She was incredibly big on family and different timeline or whatever this shit may _be_ , she had no desire to strike at one she considered her daughter in all but blood.

Which was of course why she didn't do jack shit when said girl materialized in front of her half a second later with a kick aimed square at her face.

" _So incredibly predictable"_ She thought fondly even as she flied across the courtyard and tumbled for a good few meters before ending up as an undignified heap before the stairs to the shrine. _"She always goes for the teleport kick first. A pretty big chance to instantly end the fight so she can leave and have her peace and quiet again. A brief windup anyone with half a decent sense of magic can sense and you can_ so easily _tell which direction she's coming from."_ It would have been trivial to grab her leg the moment she appeared and smash her into the ground and knock her out, using her momentum against her. But she just couldn't bring herself to it.

" _These children will be the death of me."_ She smiled warmly as she stood up and dusted herself off. Her face hurt like hell and her nose was definitely broken and bleeding. Her eyes flickered briefly at the black and white clad witch, flying towards them on her broom. The puppeteer was sitting on it as well, behind her and holding on feebly, shaking a fair amount. She couldn't help but look away upon seeing the seriousness on Marisa's features. Her mouth was pressed into a thin line, her left hand was clutching the broom in a death grip, the right one was holding a sparking Hakkero and she was just a tiny bit pale. She was glad she left the blonde alive now. Hurting her anymore would result in no chances for reconciliation at a later date. There seemed to be someone else hanging out by the edge of her sense but she clearly didn't know the person enough to recognize their magical signature right away.

Still she reached with her hand to her nose and bent it the right way, ignoring the pain. She figured it all out now. Now she just needed to put the chess pieces in their place. Or rather, the red and white clad king standing in front of her.

She waited- politely smiling the entire time, much to Reimu's apparent frustration if she judged the subtle twitches on her face right. A few seconds later, Marisa touched down next to her would-have-been sister and put her hands on her hips still determined on giving her that grim look. She gave them a while and when nobody did anything she willed a small light into existence beside her, illuminating the courtyard. Didn't want the children to strain their eyes so young after all. Though Marisa might be a lost cause already...

"I thought you were supposed to start fights with Danmaku and Spell Cards?" She politely asked, without any of her usual heat. She couldn't bring out her usual aggression against the kids.

"Don't make me vaporize ya on the spot, ya hear?!" Marisa shouted in response, pointing the Hakkero at her.

"Marisa!" Reimu berated her sharply, not taking her eyes of off her. She gave the girl an unnoticeable nod of approval. She was treating an unknown like her with immense wariness and suspicion. Her little girl was smart as always, even without her help.

"No, no I understand." She moved her hands in a placating manner, as if she was calming down an angry child, which to be fair, she has done a lot of times in her life and was kind of doing right now. "After all I nearly killed her friend. Or maybe something more..?" It would be great to know where the two stood. If they were in fact, in a relationship, apologies would be in order. She would gladly swallow her pride for family. It was the only thing she would do it for.

" _Shut_ _yer_ _mouth_. _.._ " Marisa growled, not seeing the girl behind her blush as Reimu gave her a flat look and threateningly raised her gohei. She didn't even notice her taking it out! Oh, she was making her so proud!

"You're walking on thin ice. Why did you attack Alice?" Reimu was focusing intently on her. Definitely looking for any tells for lying. Which was fine since she could just tell the truth. Unless they asked the wrong questions but she'd work around that.

"She attacked me first." An honest answer it may have been, but it didn't appear to satisfy the duo in the slightest.

"Ya were rummaging through my house!"

"I was merely hungry." She admitted shamelessly and watched as Marisa's grim expression turned into a scowl and her cheeks turned red from anger.

"I will add that your bread was a bit stale, so you probably shouldn't keep it for much longer, lest something grows on it." Her not-quite-teasing comment was met with a thin rainbow laser burning the ground between her feet.

" _I swear if ya don't take this seriously I'll kil-"_

"Marisa!" Reimu was clearly getting fed up her as well.

"I apologize if I've angered you. However your friend initiated our fight regardless. I had no intentions of harming her if she were to leave me alone." A half truth. If she didn't come straight to her, she would have been content with waiting her out. But if she came across her, which she _did_... well, that was already history. She didn't want anyone to know about her being here but it was too late for her to concern herself with that.

"Why didn't you initiate a Spell Card duel in response?" Reimu was giving her a judging look. She realized that depending on the way this conversation goes, this might turn into a full blown death match. Reimu was not above killing youkai and that was probably what they thought she was at this point. Sadly she wouldn't be correcting that mistake. She needed Reimu to attack her- just not right now. But soon.

"Truth be told, I came into existence quite recently-" It wasn't a lie, since a few hours ago she did in fact, do that. "-and I don't really know how this works quite yet. As such I have no Spell Cards and my knowledge of the rules of Danmaku is limited."

Reimu grunted in response. The two blondes next to her were listening intently each with wildly differing expressions.

"That means you're the one who messed up the Garden of the Sun then? Yuuka would like to have a word with you, but that's for later-" Oh joy. "-What do you want to do?"

"Reimu!-" The shrine maiden raised her hand to silence the witch.

"I would like to leave Gensokyo. Instantaneously if possible." Reimu frowned.

"I can't just let a youkai like you wander out into the Outside World. Who knows what trouble you'll cause?" She closed her eyes.

 _"It comes down to this."_ She thought. _"Sorry my dear child but-"_ She opened her eyes. "-I won't take no for an answer."

Reimu narrowed her eyes, Marisa's grip on the Hakkero tightened and Alice took a hesitant step back.

"So be it-" _"-Showtime."_

Reimu was gone.

She ducked, reaching upwards and grabbing the girl's leg as she came in with the kick, spinning around and throwing her far into the treeline, before sidestepping the laser shot by Marisa and watching it smash into the shrine. She took in a deep breath, extinguished the magical light plunging the courtyard into darkness and ran towards the witch.

"Alice!" The puppeteer nodded, paling further and flied up into the skies far away from them. Marisa sat down on her broom and blasted up into the air before starting to bombard her with multi-colored star-shaped projectiles.

 _"Not going for the Master Spark straight away? Interesting."_ She mused as she gathered the wind around her before jumping and commanding it to carry her further into the air. A few of the stars slammed against her body exploding in bright flashes and she hissed as they burned her body. It still didn't stop her from reaching Marisa though. She caught her left hand and tore her of the broom, throwing her into the ground below. The magician screamed as she plummeted towards the ground before going silent as she impacted the ground below.

She gently floated down near her and threw her a look. She was breathing heavily and groaning in pain. The girl would definitely be out of the fight for a while.

" _Marisa!_ " Ah, it seemed the puppeteer gathered up enough courage to make a move of her own. She didn't bother with looking as she formed a wind shield in the direction the voice came from. Straining her ears she could hear tiny muskets firing and their bullets bouncing of the solid air. She nodded in satisfaction and dismissed it.

That was the moment Reimu walked out from between the trees she tossed her into. Her shrine maiden costume was torn in several place and she had tiny cuts all over her body. She held talismans between the fingers of her left hand and she twitched her right arm, causing needles to fall out of her sleeve into her right hand's grip. But the most important was the look of rage on her face.

"I haven't exterminated a troublesome youkai in a good while." She cracked her neck. "Please. Do resist harder."

She hummed in agreement, despite the stinging comment.

"If you insist."

Reimu threw her needles before sprinting at her. She formed a wind shield again- and watched as the needles embedded themselves in _thin air,_ before releasing it. She really was going in for the kill, huh?

She dashed towards the Torii gate and stopped only once she stood between the two pillars. She didn't have to wait long- the moment she came to a stop was the moment in which Reimu lunged for her with her right fist aiming for her stomach. It was easy to intercept and redirect, given her familiarity with Reimu's fighting style- but she wouldn't dare to try and block the strike. The girl hit harder than most youkai despite her slim build. So she swiftly sidestepped her punch, took hold of her arm and spun around yet again. But this time she just smashed Reimu as hard as she could against the Torii.

"You've over committed. Be more careful next time." She critiqued, watching the girl slowly get up, gasping desperately for breath.

"Not too shabby for someone who's a few hours old." Reimu responded, watching her carefully, supporting herself against the pillar. She only shrugged in response.

"I'm good at exploiting weaknesses."

"Wouldn't happen to be your ability?" Reimu managed to ask casually, despite struggling to control her own breathing.

"I'm afraid not. Still don't know what it is." Maybe this rebirth thing really did bring changed her ability to **break** things into something else? She'd need to dedicate some time to finding out what it is.

"Right."

She just needed Reimu to start tossing her Yin-Yang orbs around. Preferably with her under the gate. She paused her thoughts as Reimu took a few shaky steps down the stairs.

"I have to admit, I won't beat you without going all out. Which will be considerably harder to do, given how I have trouble breathing normally and how tired I am currently. I'll probably need to go to Eirin after this. But!" She raised the index finger of her right hand slightly turning to her and giving her a glance over her shoulder.

She smirked, rising to the bait. "But?"

Reimu smirked as well.

"I won't have to."

" _ **MASTER SPAAAAAAAAARK!**_ "

And there it was. Oh dear.

She turned just in time to get a face full of rainbow laser. It burned her face, arms, legs just about every uncovered part of her body and she didn't dare open her mouth to scream in agony. She forced herself to endure, channeling what little magic she had left to reinforce her body and prevent any actually serious wounds. It seemed to last forever, this technicolor hell, though she knew it must have been shorter than that.

And then, as abruptly as it begun, it ended.

She swayed in place seeing Marisa on her knees and left arm holding out the Hakkero with a triumphant grin on her face. But the blonde wasn't looking at her.

The witch was looking up into the air behind her.

She slowly turned her head.

Reimu was floating a good distance from her, holding out her hands and channeling her magic into the huge Yin-Yang orb in front of her.

She was so proud of them.

"Prepare to be exterminated!" Reimu shouted before pushing the ball in her direction. She didn't move as it slowly neared her.

Twenty meters.

Fifteen meters.

Ten meters. The corners of her lips twitched upwards.

Five meters. She could feel the crack in the barrier writhing, twitching, shying away from the attack. But no, it wasn't really a crack. She smiled.

It was a _door._

 _"The door into and out of Gensokyo, located in plain sight, that could only be opened by those who held the key. The Hakurei clan and their Yin-Yang orbs."_

Genius.

She summoned the last remnants, no scraps of her power left and used them to stabilize the door, holding the lock in place and let the orb hit it.

There was a flash of blinding white light, the sudden feeling of nausea as for a moment there was no gravity or anything to stand on before she was standing under a the carbon copy of the same Torii if only it was not taken care of for a few decades. She looked around and saw an abandoned version of Reimu's shrine, taken over by plants. The heavily overgrown nature surrounded her, even if she could hear some strange noises from distance.

She smirked.

"Piece of cake."

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **Finally finished! This one took a lot more time because school is back to being a thing and as much as I don't want to I have to give it my time of the day. Still I managed to write it within a month so not so bad I'd say.  
**

 **On another note this story hit 11 Follows, 5 Favorites and has 2 Reviews (Granted by the same guy but still- Shout out to Tall-Gothic-Guy for that by the way).**

 **And I don't know how much it'll take me to write and post the next chapter since I'm actually trying to write a Fairy Tail and Touhou crossover right now, work-in-progress title Fairy Tail's Celestial (3 guesses as to who's the protagonist). It's highly likely that the next thing I'll do is post first chapter of that, a prologue probably but it's not a guarantee just yet. I need to refresh my memory of Fairy Tail a bit since it's faltered over the years.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading and I'll see you next time! Ciao~**

 **-Whiskas**


	4. Chapter 4

"Piece of cake."

After uttering those words she felt any energy she had in her body leave it. She struggled a bit to stand still, before falling to her knees, panting heavily as the adrenaline provided by the encounter slowly stopped affecting her body. Tears of pain gathered in the corners of her eyes. _Her body was in agony and it really_ _wanted to let her know that_ _, considering the amount of pain she was currently in._

Idly, she noticed that the sun which has already settled over the horizon in Gensokyo seemed to still have been up in the sky although covered by dark clouds. She drew in a shuddering breath and gently wiped her eyes, hissing in pain as the skin on both her face and hand reminded her that she's definitely enjoying at least second degree magical burns on most of her body. At least they healed way faster than the normal kind.

"God… I'm… I'm so _pathetic_." She grunted out between heavy breaths.

She's may have been hit harder than this before but never while so low on her magic reserves. If she hadn't used some of the last bits of her magic for body reinforcement when Marisa cast her Master Spark on her she would be either vaporized completely or unconscious, halfway melted and dying, with an uncomfortably higher likelihood of the second one.

Really, the protection from any real damage offered by the Spellcard Rules would have been incredibly convenient a minute ago.

She realized with not a small of disgust, that if somehow a younger version of herself or even just one who didn't get thrashed by the _hag_ and therefore didn't possess a bit more humility than she normally had found her right now, they would die laughing at her sight, humiliate her even more and then put her out of her misery in that order.

She knew that if anyone outside of her immediate family did even so much as _look_ in her general direction right now she'd kill herself trying to murder them. Her late father's words echoed in her mind.

" _You always had power didn't you Rin? **Never** be afraid to use it to do what you set out to do. Crush anyone who would oppose you. Way I see it, in this place **might** makes **right**. The hesitant and frail get trampled and tossed aside to be eaten by the wolves. Don't show any weaknesses or they **will** shred you to pieces and drag you down to the bottom with them."_

Every time she looked back on things, she realized more and more just how _damaging_ the raving rants that her father started going off on after mother's death were to her child self's relatively easily shaped world view. Thankfully, Ayaka Hakurei, her beloved sensei managed to straighten her out enough for her to be capable of social interaction, at least once she could get custody over her. It really would have been terrible if her mentality made her consider civilians thrash that deserved no respect unless they proved their worth in a fight to the death. Sadly, she didn't manage to fully help her out with combatants before she met her untimely death and she was left to regress back nearly to the beginning on that front. Thankfully she was lucky enough not to mess up her teacher's daughter into being complete reject of society by sheer proximity to her. Mima really helped out on that front.

It was really telling that how terrible you really were, when an evil spirit hellbent on taking revenge on humanity did a better job raising a human child than you did. Though Marisa, while more socially capable turned out to be a kleptomaniac with an unrelenting drive to gain more magical power, so it may be that they were roughly equal in that department.

"Gods, I'm such a… _piece of shit_." She grumbled and frowning she slowly, shakily made her way over to the ruined shrine's staircase a grimace coming onto her face. She knew she had really big issues for years, most of them kick started _by_ father. Keine did admit that both she and Ayaka tried as hard as they could to manipulate the entire situation so she wouldn't end up damaged like she did, so she could be a normal, well adjusted person. She was a living testament to the fact that it only took a single, seemingly good thing to happen for a plan years long in the making to be ruined.

Climbing the shrine's four steps was a challenge like no other she ever experienced. It took her almost a minute to reach the top of them, the task of raising her knees repeatedly too great to do so repeatedly without a break and once she managed to reach the top she immediately collapsed on the half rotten wood.

The floorboards immediately screamed in protest and buckled under her weight, indenting slightly before collapsing under her head. Spikes of wood prickled the back of her neck, threatening to break skin and allow whatever nasty bacteria or mold was on them to get into her bloodstream.

" _ **Motherfucker!**_ " She shouted, quickly rolling over on her side onto her belly and whimpering quietly as her body reminded her why that was such a bad idea.

"Haah… I hate… being this… _fucking weak_..." She tried to slow down her ragged breathing, if only to focus on something else than the sound of her own heart thundering in her chest.

She just laid there for a while, trying to calm down, listening to the quiet, comforting sounds of nature and the strange mechanical sound in the distance. She took notice of the severe downgrade in the amount of background magic in the Outside World. The recovery of her magic pool will be much slower but at least she'll have the time to get used to being a breathing, living, _existing_ person again.

"Well… on the upside… this cannot… get any worse..."

In response, the sky growled several seconds later as lightning crackled overhead as if she spoke some magic words. In a few seconds tiny droplets of rain started mercilessly bombarding the patchy roof above.

She took in a deep breath. Anger swelled in her mind, her fists clenched.

And after a while she let out a large, tired and suffering sigh.

"Just… fucking end me now..." She grumbled and closed her eyes.

Sleep came and claimed her in seconds.

* * *

She woke with a start as a _huge_ magical signature rapidly entered her sensing range before coming to a halt in mere moments a kilometer off or so.

A short investigation of it brought rather interesting results. It was a near perfect match in magnitude to Reimu's and while not feeling anything like her adopted daughter's or teacher's signature it had a certain sense of… familiarity, to it? She couldn't quite put her finger on it but thankfully she didn't recognize it as that hag's and any of her shikigami.

Which meant that there was at least one outsider who possessed an unnaturally large magic pool. Sort of similar to herself, only her own was even larger still, _if_ completely filled, due to sheer luck and practice. She slowly stood up, carefully analyzing the signature. It was raw, in constant shift; Whoever it's owner was, it was clear they didn't have much control over it. Their magic was constantly leaking out of their pool in incredibly minuscule amounts, instantly replaceable by the natural draw from the environment everyone had. They weren't close to any standards set by any self respecting magician or at least no one halfway capable ever showed them the ropes. And since they had so much naturally, they probably used it before, even if they didn't realize it. Unconsciously manipulating your surroundings was only natural if you had so much power at your fingertips. Given they were an Outsider who had a really small chance of contact with any _real_ magic users however, it was possible they kept using it and rationalizing it as something else. _If_ they didn't believe magic was possible. Some did from what she learned from talking to random people who were spirited away into Gensokyo. Some also apparently truly believed in shape shifting space lizard men that were taking over the world governments by replacing politicians one by one. Her father even seemed to believe in an organization called the "Illuminous" or something stupid like that controlling the world. Which was preposterous, of course.

Maybe she could try cutting a deal with them? Serve as a tutor in the magical arts for a few months, hide her own currently nearly untraceable signature under their massive one (just in case), while she regained her strength. Then, once she's done with teaching them go back to Gensokyo.

She looked herself over. Her clothes were a bit torn and burnt, courtesy of Marisa's Master Spark. Thankfully magic burns healed rather quickly, as more often than not if you lived through the damage, your body tended to assimilate the harmful magic's residue on it's own. Though the cosmetic damage they left behind tended to last at least a day.. Her skin _had a rather visible red tint to it_ , but otherwise she was fine, if not really presentable. She certainly didn't feel she'd have an urge to murder anyone who saw her currently, so she must be feeling reasonably confident in her appearance.

As she walked down the stairs, she felt around her own magic reserves. She clicked her tongue; They were incredibly low – barely enough for a few magical light spells, few wind slices, maybe a fireball if she pushed it. Should be enough to convince them magic is real if they turn out to be a skeptic.

She really hoped they wouldn't though.

It would be such a waste of talent to leave them to their own devices. Really, she disliked few things in life and hated even less. She actually tended to _be_ disliked and hated much more. But amongst the few things she felt particularly strong about, the biggest contenders were _that hag,_ _a rather recent addition to the list all things considered_ , anyone who dared to threaten, heaven-forbid hurt her family and wasting potential. And if she managed to find herself a powerful ally? Well that would just be a _small_ bonus.

And so she walked through the forest, with a small spring to her step.

* * *

The woods were oddly quiet around her. The usual forest ambiance lacked the typical singing of various birds and if it weren't for the occasional sound of a snapped branch off in the distance, she'd think there was no animals in here. She wasn't all that bothered about the lack of animal calls, given that she was more of a "whisper of the wind in the leaves" kinda gal.

"How strange. Perhaps their animal instincts register me as dangerous?" She mused. The thought certainly stroked her ego in the right way. However, it was simply far more likely the animals in the Outside World were simply afraid of all humans, unlike the ones in Gensokyo. Which was fair, since the usual human in Gensokyo was as much a prey animal as a common bunny. Most people never left the village outside of special occasions.

She snapped out of her thoughts as she spotted the end of the treeline. The signature's owner remained in place, thankfully, not moving too much over time it took her to get here. They were probably just wandering about in their house. How convenient.

She felt around with her magical sense again. It was a bit harder since their huge signature would suppress any other in the vicinity. After a few moments she was able to confirm there weren't any humans in a large radius but the two of them. Perfect.

With her next step, she broke the treeline. There in the middle of a forest clearing was a house. It was two stories tall and painted bright blue, with a gravel road leading to a smaller building connected with it and a smaller path branching away towards a small flight of stairs leading up to what she assumed to be the front door. Looking at the windows she didn't see anyone walking around inside, but still, she approached cautiously.

She idly noted that size-wise, the house could be called a small mansion in Gensokyo. The human need for food already limited the amount of space they could dedicate towards housing and expansion was nigh-impossible with smarter and more observant youkai immediately taking notice and attacking the outer verges of humanity's territory. There were limits imposed on the sizes of housing for everyone unless they wanted to _really_ try their luck and build a bigger house on the outskirts. Few had the money and even fewer had the political clout required to build anything larger inside the village. Keine had her school because the entire village was taught by her, and everyone generally just let her do her own thing without any complaining. Hieda's family was quite frankly the richest by a long shot, with entire families of servants working for them at their absolutely ridiculously over sized mansion as she focused on compiling human knowledge of Gensokyo. She herself has the status necessary or rather had the status necessary, given the current circumstances, granted to her by her position of the village's greatest alive defender but she never actually did anything with it.

She paused before the stairs for a second and squinting she inspected at the building.

After a short while she decided that she could, at least, say with confidence that it was still smaller than the Tengu's homes.

Seriously it's like everyone up on Youkai Mountain with a wolf tail or crow wings owned an honest-to-gods mansion.

She resumed her approach and walked up the stairs. The door didn't have visible doorbell but rather a weird tiny box with a button on it around her eye level and a handle below it.

Now how to approach this? She gave it some consideration.

"Ah, screw planning for the conversation." She muttered. "No plan survives the first contact with the enemy."

She took a breath, and decided to just wing it, pressing the button. A low buzzing sound made itself known behind the door and she heard someone groan inside in response. A few seconds later there was a sound of feet hitting the floor as the person inside slowly shuffled themselves towards the door.

She felt apprehension for a brief moment before she squashed the feeling. She couldn't back away now.

The door was unlocked and summarily nearly ripped of it's hinges

"How many times do we have to repeat that mother does not take requests for private sho- Huh?"

As she saw the teenager who opened the door she decided that "Huh" was indeed a correct reaction. The girl's brown hair was the exact same shade as Reimu's and the same could be said for her eyes. She blinked and in her head she took off the glasses from the girl's face before superimposing a memory of Reimu's face on the girl's and, oh _wow_ was that a close match. Not identical but very close indeed. How _peculiar_.

And as much as she'd like to think about _that_ more the girl seemingly got out of her own stupor.

"Are you okay Miss?" She nearly yelled, walking forward and looking her over. "Do you want me to call an ambulance?" She asked taking out what she could only presume was a phone out of her school girl uniform's pocket.

"Do I _look_ okay to you?" She heard herself snap before she could react. The girl cringed and looked away.

"Right. Sorry."

She sighed.

"You don't need to call an ambulance-" She didn't know what it was but she assumed it was something health related "-because I'm here for something else."

Immediately the girl's gaze narrowed and she pointed a finger at her face. "If you think you can get the show by _pity_ you're going to be sorely dissapoint-"

She was starting to get real annoyed by her attitude. She raised her right hand.

" _Also_ what I'm not here for kid. I don't know who your mother is or what kind of shows she puts on. What I'm here for-" She snapped her fingers and a small ball of flames was conjured over her open palm "-is this."

The girl gaped momentarily and fell silent. She looked at the flame as if it was the strangest thing in the world before speaking up, her voice slightly cracking up.

"Magic."

She nodded. Before she could say anything the girl's gaze sharpened.

"How do I know this isn't some sort of trick?" The girl asked suspiciously.

"How would you like me to prove it to you?" She retorted.

"Roll up your sleeve."

She quietly did so.

"No lighting mechanisms..." The girl muttered. "Okay, now throw it over there." She pointed towards the grass beside the stairs. She gently tossed it down. It hit the earth blackening the grass it landed on and wilting the grass nearby.

"Do it again."

Another finger snap. She was going to run out of juice at this rate.

The girl reached out and touched it.

" _Ow! That hurts!"_ She rolled her own eyes in response.

"Well of course it does. You've touched a live flame."

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up." She grumbled, blowing air on her hand.

"Here let me." She reached out and touched the burns on the girl's fingers and casting a small healing spell and immediately swearing mentally. Damned healing, always taking so much. She was completely dry.

"So, convinced yet?" She asked as nonchalantly as she could.

One second later she was dragged inside unceremoniously.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Finally done! I took too much time with this one and then I got stuck at the end! Thankfully I managed to work it out and I'm done with this chapter. Also I made changes in the previous chapters, the big one being completely erasing the mention of our heroine's parent's divorce. During the sweet ass long time I've spent on writing (procrastinating) this chapter I also changed the timeline of this setting a bit as well as solidified the backstory and what I actually want to write here. Previously I wasn't so sure but I think I have what's going to be the final version of the story in my head. It's certainly a lot more ambitious than before and we're probably gonna be here for a few years even if I did pump out a chapter every week or two.  
**

 **Also I un-emboldened a lot of the mentions of breaking as the power in the second chapter. In hindsight, emboldening it all was kinda silly. I've also made a few minor spelling and grammatical fixes and I'm probably going to be upping the story rating to mature at some point.**

 ** **Sadly I can't guarantee when's the next chapter of anything since finals are slowly creeping behind the corner. However if it's gonna be anything it'll likely end up being Fairy Tail's Celestial.  
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 ** **Anyway I'm a bit _too_ tired for review responding so off to dreamland with me now! I might edit that in tomorrow though. See you next time!****

 ** **~Whiskas****


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